Rules Would Blanket All Adult Businesses

February 4, 1986|By Donna O'Neal of The Sentinel Staff

TITUSVILLE — A proposed revision to Brevard's adult entertainment law carries sweeping new restrictions -- including special licensing of the businesses and their employees -- that also would cover massage parlors and adult dance halls for the first time.

The existing ordinance, passed in October 1983, regulates only adult bookstores and theaters through restrictions on distance from other businesses, homes and public buildings, said Assistant County Attorney Greg Stewart.

Adult businesses must be at least 1,000 feet from schools and churches, a quarter-mile from other adult establishments and at least 500 feet from residences.

The revised ordinance would expand the distance regulation to include adult dancing establishments and massage parlors. It also would require businesses in all four categories to have a special ''adult establishment'' license and to have their employees carry county-issued work permits, he said.

The two-year, $50 permits would require the employee to be photographed and fingerprinted.

''It's much more comprehensive, much more specific,'' Stewart said.

Officials said the stiffer revisions are an attempt to regulate all adult establishments. They also would crack down on the growing number of adult businesses moving to unincorporated Brevard because of tougher laws in cities such as Cocoa Beach and Melbourne and in other counties, officials said.

Brevard sheriff's Lt. Jim Donn said the number of adult establishments in Brevard has more than doubled since 1984.

''There's a need for a comprehensive ordinance,'' Commissioner Sue Schmitt said. ''The average person doesn't want that type of establishment near their home. And I can't blame them.''

Schmitt said she asked that the proposal, which has been under revision since last February, be discussed at today's commission meeting so officials can set a date for a public hearing.

A proposal to set a 2 a.m. shutdown time for selling alcoholic beverages in the county also will be discussed.

Manuel Widman, manager of Space Age Adult Books in Satellite Beach, said the adult entertainment ordinance ''stinks. It's basically another harassment by a bunch of tinhorn politicians.

''Some of these stores do operate on the shady side,'' Widman said. ''But we run an extremely clean ship here.''

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the North Brevard Service Complex, 700 Park Ave., Titusville.